Chapter 6: The Weight of Seven Months
Grace Okafor arrived at eight o'clock.
She came alone, which was what he had asked.
She set her bag on the kitchen table, took out a legal pad and a folder, and looked at him across the surface without preamble.
"Tell me from the beginning," she said.
He told her.
All of it — the bruise, Lily's whisper, the call to Thomas, what Renata had said about the transfers.
Grace wrote steadily and did not interrupt.
When he finished, she set her pen down and looked at the notes.
"You haven't touched the firm accounts since you got home?"
"I came straight here from the airport."
"Good.
Don't touch anything until I tell you to." She opened the folder.
"I need to tell you something, and I need you to hear it carefully."
"Go ahead."
"I've had a flag on the Harwick account for six weeks." She turned the folder so he could see it.
A printed bank statement with three lines highlighted in yellow.
"Your accountant contacted me quietly.
She noticed the same transfer pattern Renata described.
She came to me instead of you because she wasn't sure who she could trust at the firm."
Daniel looked at the highlighted lines.
Three transfers.
Three hundred thousand each.
Nine hundred thousand total, moved under his name.
"My accountant went to you."
"She was protecting you.
She didn't know how deep it went." Grace tapped the page.
"The authorization signatures are forged.
I had a handwriting specialist look at them three weeks ago.
The report is in here." She slid a second document across the table.
"Thomas Aldren forged your signature on all three transfers."
Daniel looked at the specialist's report without picking it up.
"He told Renata that exposing this would destroy me," he said.
"Because my name is on the transfers."
"That's exactly what someone does when they want to keep a witness quiet." Grace's voice was even.
"He needed Renata to stay silent.
He used the affair as leverage and the forgery as the threat.
It's textbook."
"How long before this becomes a criminal matter?"
"It already is.
Fraud.
Forgery.
Breach of fiduciary duty." She paused.
"Potentially more, depending on where the money went."
"Where did it go?"
Grace looked at him steadily.
"A holding company registered eighteen months ago.
The sole director is listed as Thomas Aldren.
But the company has a second signatory." She turned the last page in the folder.
"The second signatory is his wife."
Daniel looked up from the page.
"Caroline?"
"She signed the company registration documents.
Whether she knew what the account was being used for — that's a question for the investigation." Grace closed the folder.
"Daniel.
This has been building for a long time.
Thomas didn't start this because of the affair.
The affair may have been part of how he kept it contained."
The kitchen was quiet.
The clock on the wall moved.
"He used Renata," Daniel said.
"I think so.
Yes."
"She thought she was protecting me."
"She was also protecting herself.
Both things can be true." Grace picked up her pen again.
"I need you to give me access to the firm's internal records tonight.
Everything you can pull without alerting the system.
Tomorrow morning I'm going to contact the financial crimes unit.
I want the warrant executed before Thomas knows we've moved."
"He'll know something is wrong.
I told him we were done at the firm."
Grace nodded slowly.
"Then we need to move fast.
If he thinks you're coming for him, he may try to move the money or destroy records." She stood up.
"Is there anything else?
Anything you haven't told me?"
Daniel thought about Lily in the armchair.
Her small voice.
He wasn't very nice to me either.
"One more thing," he said.
"Thomas was in this house regularly for eight months.
He was alone with my daughter."
Grace's expression did not change.
But she wrote something at the bottom of her legal pad and underlined it twice.
"I'll add that to the file," she said quietly.
She left at ten.
The house was still.
Daniel sat at the kitchen table for a long time after her car pulled out of the drive.
Then he heard a small sound from the hallway.
Lily was standing in the doorway in her pajamas, holding a stuffed rabbit by one ear.
Mrs.
Pearce must have brought her home.
"I couldn't sleep," she said.
"Come here." He held out his arm.
She crossed the kitchen and climbed into his lap and leaned against his chest.
He wrapped both arms around her.
"Is it going to be okay?" she asked.
He pressed his face into her hair.
"Yes," he said.
"I promise."
May you like
He meant it.
He just did not yet know what okay was going to cost.
